WOOLGROWERS who watched the fashion parades at the 2017 Make Smoking History Wagin Woolorama last week saw some of their wool being worn by the models.
Peter Scanlan Wools had eight pure wool and wool blend women's fashion outfits made especially for the event by Sunshine woollen mills in China, the world's biggest integrated worsted wool fabric and clothing manufacturer.
The outfit styles and designs were left to Sunshine with the only stipulation from Peter Scanlan Wools being that the outfits had to be made from WA Merino wool.
No one watching the parades in the Ray Johnson wool pavilion would have realised it, but the stylish outfits were a special rush order.
Peter Scanlan Wools' wool buyer Steve Noa flew to China the weekend before Woolorama specifically to collect the outfits to have them back in WA in time.
The urgent order came about when Peter Scanlan's daughter Louise discovered one of the other scheduled exhibitors for the fashion parades had dropped out.
Ms Scanlan runs Ignite The Night formal dress hire in Fremantle and was already booked to display some of her company's range during the parades using models from Bourne Events modelling agency.
She and her father and the rest of the Peter Scanlan Wools team got together and came up with a plan to fill the gap in the parades.
"Sunshine mills is a client of ours, we sell a lot of WA wool to them and Steve (Noa) has a very good relationship with them," company founder Peter Scanlan said.
"Steve asked them to make up eight outfits out of WA wool for the fashion parades.
"We left the designs up to them, we didn't know what we were getting until Steve flew to China to collect them - we didn't want anything to go wrong with a courier so we sent Steve to collect them.
"All they (Sunshine) wanted to know was the measurements of the models who would be wearing the outfits, so we contacted the modelling agency, got that information and sent it to Sunshine."
The outfits comprising day and evening wear, skirts and jackets, dresses and pants suits, were displayed immediately after the Ignite The Night collection with an explanation to audiences that they were specifically made up for Woolorama from WA wool.
"They were all made out of the same wool from WA farmers that was on display in the wool pavilion at Woolorama, the same wool that judges were awarding ribbons to," Mr Scanlan said.
Mr Noa said he was very impressed when Sunshine staff showed him what they had made for the fashion parade and was very relieved to get the outfits back by the Monday evening before Woolorama.
"They were made from what is typical WA wool, 18.5 to 21 micron, and the wool from some of our growers at Woolorama would have been used," Mr Noa said.
"We wanted growers to have the opportunity to see their wool being worn as fashion garments by the models.
"If I'd realised they were also going to have male models here (at Woolorama), I would have got some suits and men's outfits made as well," he said.
Australian Wool Innovation sponsored the fashion parades and displayed the latest fashion trends in wool with outfits by Woolmark brands including MJ Bale, Country Road, Sportscraft, Saba and Kookai being modelled.
Wool athleisure wear - a blend of performance fabric with leisure design and style - by Jaggad, MacPac and Kathmandu was also featured.